I can't offer anything authoratitive, but isn't it an old fashioned love song with the 3 sections of the song covering the 3 key phases in a long term relationship?

The first phase is a young man looking for direction in his life and playing the field in search of "somebody special". It covers those first tentative moments of mutual attraction when they eyeball one another for the first time and everything gets set in motion..

The second phase is when he has fallen head over heels in love, is laying himself bare emotionally, and offering her a future together.

The final phase is years down the line i.e. they have grown old together and he is having a nostalgic look back to their salad days when everything seemed bigger and better and anything was possible, and thinking about the leap of faith they took that set them on the path from there to where they are now. I can't work out if he is looking back with affection or regret though - maybe a bit of both?

exactly. though i'm not sure they're still together in old age...and indeed the object/person is a single person, rather than a concept, such as the eternal feminine. nevertheless, three stage:

1. in search of passion2. in throes of passion3. nostalgia...look back at passion

nice twist: "when you were young"...rather than "when we were young". i reckon that's significant, but not sure why.

flashbacks of a fool....what a great celebration of an emotion triggered by a song, which then becomes the thread within the celebration (i.e. the film). this film also triggered my love for scott walker, somewhat belated admittedly

I see it more about a 'lost love' somebody that is no longer apart of his life

In the beginning he is a young man having a good time with the ladies, full of excitement and urgency, falls in love "Somebody special looking at me"... but doesn't follow his heart..... "It's Just a game" attitude and wants to play the field.

Then the middle section, he is further down the line he's matured, find himself lost, does a bit of soul searching, yearning and desperately wants back that.... "Somebody special"... what he once had and lost.... "I would do anything for you" etcetera, etcetera, etcetera......"

The final bit is when he is old man, looking back with regret and reminiscing about how she used to be and what might have been perhaps?..."shake your hair girl with the ponytail, takes me right back When you were young"... maybe from memory the minds eye, or possibly looking at a photograph?

It's a diamond of a song whichever way you look at it.... one of my all time favourites, and Bryan delivering those heart wrenching lyrics wouldn't be Bryan without them. just brilliant from start to finish.

Gardening is anathema to most single young men - so surely the gardening references are there to show, in his besotted condition, that he is prepared to ignore the things that matter to him and commit to anything, provided it makes her happy and allows him to be with her. New love is all consuming, after all !

In the final part of the song he is looking back at his life with her and wondering where and why it all went flat. He is blaming her for everything changing and wants her to get back to being the girl he fell in love with all those years ago. Of course, he fails to acknowledge the changes he signed up to in those heady days of new love and the part they have played his current situation. He certainly didn't find the "something" he was looking for at the start of the song or the peace of mind that he desired. I guess he is on his way to a mid-life crisis - an all too familiar tale. The 2 seater sports car is just around the corner!

In the final part of the song he is looking back at his life with her and wondering where and why it all went flat. He is blaming her for everything changing and wants her to get back to being the girl he fell in love with all those years ago.

this chimes well with my sense that the lyric in stage 3 has bitterness in it. thanks avondale.

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